The most popular method of copying a paper original is to utilize a copying machine. Recent digital copying machines have a read image transmission function of transmitting, as a file, image data of an original loaded from a scanner to a host computer (external apparatus) connected via a network (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-132642).
An original is set on the scanner of a copying machine, the number of copies is input, the copy button is pressed, and then the designated number of copies can be created. According to this method, however, if an original is skewed and read by the scanner, corresponding pages of all copies are skewed and printed. Copying by the copying machine adds noise or black points to an original, degrading the image quality. This method cannot remove an unnecessary page number, header, or footer attached to an original, and add a new page number, header, or footer. Also, this method cannot provide more advanced original editing such as adjustment of a position at which a specific original page is to be printed. To solve these problems, there have conventionally been proposed two methods.
The first method is executed by a single copying machine. An original read by the scanner of the copying machine is temporarily saved in the copying machine. The user confirms the state of the saved original, and performs print settings for improving the above-mentioned problems. The saved original is then copied in accordance with the print settings (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-283933). This method is adopted when skew correction and removal of noise and black points are automatically executed. However, advanced editing such as header/footer editing or print position adjustment for each page is rarely executed owing to the operability and performance of the copying machine, or is performed at poor operability.
The second method enables even advanced editing by temporarily transferring an original read by the scanner of a copying machine to an information processing apparatus connected to the copying machine, and using application software with high performance and advanced functions in the information processing apparatus and high-operability interfaces such as a display, mouse, and keyboard (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-165639).
Conventionally, a high-quality copy of a paper original is created by these two methods.
When a document is converted into electronic data and captured as image data by a scanner to generate an electronic document, problems in image quality such as skew correction and density adjustment unique to a paper original occur. In some cases, a blank page called a slip sheet (or an inserting paper) is inserted in a paper input original in order to represent a logical break in the document.
In processing a paper original of a format which expresses a document structure by inserting a blank sheet (slip sheet) in a document, data captured by the scanner are arranged in a simple order of electronized image data. For this reason, blank image data of one page is merely contained in the electronized document, losing a logical structure in which the document is divided by a blank sheet. In this case, the user must search an electronic document for a slip sheet, and assign the document a document structure which is divided by the slip sheet.
When a printer or the like used for output charges the user for the number of printouts, he is charged even for a blank page though no data is printed on it To prevent this, there is provided a function of deleting a blank page in saving scanned image data as a document. In this case, a slip sheet representing the break of a document is lost from a printing result, and the electronic document cannot be logically divided by a blank page and restored as a structured document.